by Ella McShane (27/11/24)
Above: People gather at Lousail Boulevard during the 2022 Men’s World Cup in Qatar. Photo: Trip Advisor.
The globalisation of football has seen the sport belong to many humans across the world. Football can celebrate culture, exude passion, and unite, arguably in a way that no other sport can. This also means that football is entitled to some of the richest benefits this world has to offer and has become inherently political. For many different reasons.
When it comes to reaping the natural world’s benefits, we come across the term geopolitics which is a branch of politics that refers to a particular country’s international relations, as influenced by its geographical factors (Oxford Languages, n.d.). Geopolitics in sport refers to developments and influences in sport, enabled by foreign and domestic governments. In recent years, football has seen a big increase in foreign government investments, especially from countries in the Gulf.
The most recent example is Newcastle United. In 2021 a majority stake in the club was acquired by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. This was derived from its “40%” oil-based economy” (International Monetary Fund, 2022), thus geopolitically intertwining Saudi Arabia and England through the sport of football. The following season, the men’s side finished fourth on the Premier League table, a far cry from the relegation battle they faced the previous season.
But where does the women’s side fit into all of this?
Until 2022 Newcastle United Women operated as an independent entity that received funding from the Newcastle United Foundation in its later years. Following the restructuring of the club, the men’s team ownership claims to have invested in their women’s first team.
The team was promoted to Championship (tier two) in April of this year. Newcastle United Women are on a seemingly upward trajectory, supported by increased funding. There has been an improvement in marketing, the massive summer signing of Lioness Demi Stokes and they set a Championship attendance record of 15,382 in their match against North-East rivals Sunderland earlier this season.
However, a big increase in funding cannot be presumed. The arrival of Stokes from Manchester City was completed on a free transfer and the improvement in marketing and attendances can be equated to their promotion to the Championship. This league is also undergoing many changes after a transfer in ownership to the Women’s Professional Leagues Limited (WPLL).
It is uncertain as to whether the women’s side is benefitting from the club’s newfound geopolitically derived wealth. The latest comprehensive financial report for the women’s club which is available to the public, dates back to June 2023, their promotion to tier two.
What can be said with certainty is that any potential benefits, at the hands of the club, would not be distributed equally.
Like funding discrepancies in the women’s and the men’s games, the way geopolitics interacts with the women’s and the men’s game is truly night and day and can come with both positive and negative implications.
One positive outcome of geopolitical involvement in the women’s game is increased access to football for women and girls living in socially conservative countries. Those in the Middle East are already starting to see increased access.
By Western standards, modern Saudi Arabia is still considered to be a conservative country with restricted rights for women and girls, being at the centre of human rights controversy in recent history.
Government programs and worldly influences have begun the process of “diversifying” modern Saudi Arabia. Thus, the concept of denying half your population of a sport that plays such a crucial role in society became increasingly deemed as immoral. In 2022 we saw the inaugural season of the Saudi Women’s Premier League, giving the women’s game its biggest platform yet and generating interest all over the country.
Another positive outcome is simply the sheer amount of funding that is potentially available to the women’s game from oil-based economies like Saudi Arabia. Although extremely wealthy, such nations are seen to be tainted with their climate impact being the arguably most sinister.
Independent scientific project The Climate Action Tracker, rated Saudi Arabia in 2023 as “Critically Insufficient” in their efforts to combat climate change. They also stated that emissions are projected to significantly rise by 2030” and “its national oil company, Aramco, is planning to increase oil output in the coming years.”
This is extremely problematic, especially considering the large share Aramco has in FIFA.
Another negative implication of geopolitics in sport is the use of a tool known as sports washing. This “is the deployment of sports for the purpose of cleansing a country’s image and reputation.” (S. Chadwick, 2023).
In the case of the women’s game, sports washing becomes specifically problematic when it is used by countries whose societal and cultural beliefs, violate the values and beliefs at the foundation of the western women’s game.
For example, women’s and LGBTQIA+ rights have made the women’s game into what it is today. If you have a socially conservative country that has long violated women’s and LGBTQIA+ rights, gain the ability to hold a strong influence in the women’s game through geopolitics, it can be seen as giving “a massive middle finger” to everything the women’s game stands for.
In my opinion, the future of geopolitics in the women’s game is likely to take, what I deem, a positive upward turn. The current generation of professional female footballers has always had to have a ‘plan B’. Being a full-time professional female footballer did not seem like a feasible career path even five years ago in the UK. It is still not feasible in many countries.
If these girls wanted to continue playing football, it was most likely additional to education. Ten players in the 2022 European Championships squad held University degrees and “90.6%” of female players in the German Bundesliga “are pursuing or have already completed academic or vocational education” (P. Ehnold et al, 2024).
Educated individuals are more likely to value democracy, universal human rights, climate conservation, and collective freedoms. Something I believe, is not currently being upheld in the current climate of geopolitics in sport.
We have begun to see these values, strongly upheld by female footballers. Recently in an open letter to FIFA a group urged the world governing body to end their deal with Saudi Arabian oil giant Aramco.
These girls have got to where they are today by fighting the patriarchy at every step. The last thing the momentum for change is going to do is stop.
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